Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-11734, filed Jan. 19, 2005, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric stringed instrument such as an electric guitar or an electric bass guitar that plays music by detecting vibrations from strings and converting them into electrical signals.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in an electric guitar, a plurality of types of pickup devices (referred to below as pickups) that each have a different tone are lined up below the strings in parallel with the direction in which the strings extend. Vibrations from the strings are detected by these pickups and are converted into electrical signals. These are then amplified and played from a speaker. There are three types of pickup. A pickup that is normally placed on a front side (i.e., a neck side) is known as a front pickup, a pickup that is placed on a rear side (i.e., a bridge side) is known as a rear pickup, and a pickup that is placed between these two is known as a center pickup. When the front pickup is selected and used, a soft sound is generated. When the rear pickup is selected and used, a hard sound is generated. When both pickups are selected and used, an intermediate sound is generated. The selection of which of these pickups is used is made using a pickup selecting device (referred to below as a selector), and, if required by the piece being played, a mixed sound (i.e., a half tone) can be obtained by using the front pickup and center pickup together or the center pickup and the rear pickup together.
A conventional technology that makes it possible to display which pickup has been selected by the selector is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication, (JP-A) No. 2001-13967.
In the conventional technology described in JP-A No. 2001-13967, a pickup display device is provided in the guitar body and this display device displays which of the front, middle, and rear pickups is currently being used. An LED or liquid crystal panel is used for the pickup display device.
However, in the conventional technology described in JP-A No. 2001-13967, because no special measures are provided in order to improve the ability to identify or improve the ability to verify the pickup on the pickup display device, the display state is monotone (i.e., a monochrome display) and there is little variety of change so that the device is lacking in its verifiability and in its appearance or design as an instrument. Moreover, outside where illumination is poor or during a performance on a stage, the problem arises that it is not possible to identify which pickup has been selected, so that there is considerable scope for improvement.